Huskers Working Through Bye Week

Lincoln, Neb.- The Nebraska football team continued practicing through its second bye week of the 2013 football season on Wednesday. The Huskers practiced in full pads for just over two hours inside the Hawks Center and outside at the Ed and Joyanne Gass Practice Fields.

Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini met with media after practice, noting that the last few days of practice have been very productive.

“We did all good on good yesterday and a lot of fast tempo stuff, which I always think is good at this time of year,” Pelini said, “We did about half of that today, half good on good, and then we gave the players an introduction to Minnesota. It was very productive, there was some things that we wanted to look at offensively and defensively.”

The Husker football team lost one of its senior leaders last Saturday at Purdue, with offensive guard Spencer Long going down with a knee injury. Pelini noted at practice today that even though Long will miss the remainder of the season, the injury is not as severe as originally thought.

“It wasn’t PCL, which is good. It was MCL. We thought it was MCL and PCL, which is wasn’t, so that is good.” Pelini said.

When asked if there was an outside shot of Long returning to the Huskers for the end of the 2013 season, Pelini quickly responded saying Long will be out for the remainder of the season. Saying that though, Pelini did mention they will do their best to make sure Long is ready for a possible NFL future.

As for who will replace Long in the starting offensive lineman lineup, that has yet to be determined, with multiple options in play for the NU coaching staff. One of the more talked about options is moving Lincoln native Cole Pensick over to guard.

“We will look at these last couple days of practice of film and then Friday as well, then we will see how next weeks practice goes.” Pelini said, “That is always a possibility, he (Pensick) could do that if need be, that is always a good option for us.”

*Pelini mentioned that senior quarterback Taylor Martinez is still out with turf toe, but he is really close to returning.

Nebraska will be back on the practice field Friday, as the Huskers work through their second bye week of the 2013 season. NU will be back in action Saturday Oct. 26 against the Minnesota Gophers in Minneapolis. The game will be nationally televised by either ESPN or ESPN 2 at 11 a.m. (CT).